An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Twenty-One

I put the extra sleep I'd gotten to good use, waking up earlier than usual and heading down to the lake. I didn't yet have a complete plan for how I was going to do everything I needed to do this year, but I decided running in the mornings before breakfast would be a good start. That way I could keep using my free periods for homework, just like I had with Professor Binns' class last year.

The sun was barely up when I got out to the lake, doing a few stretches before starting out at a good pace. The grounds were deserted, and the castle was quiet. Not many other people were up right now, and I took a deep breath of fresh morning air as I ran. I could hear birds chirping, and everything just felt peaceful.

Sure, it would force me to change the sleep schedule I'd been on for almost seventeen years, but it was probably the only way I'd be able to do everything that needed to get done. Besides, I could live with little moments of peace like this. Hell, I might need them once things started picking up at Hogwarts, like I knew they would.

I ran a few miles, then went inside to get dressed for the day before breakfast. My friends were just finishing getting dressed when I got back to the dorms, and they were clearly surprised to see me looking awake, much less like I'd just gone for a run.

"Alexa! You're actually up?" asked Angelina.

"Yeah. I don't like it all that much either, but I'm starting to see why my family always wanted to do training in the mornings. It's just a good time for it."

"Does this mean you're always going to be up early?" asked Alicia, sounding shocked. She was totally justified, but still.

"I think it does," I sighed heavily. Both of my friends looked impressed, and I just laughed them off as I changed. They waited for me, and then the three of us headed down to breakfast together. We sat down with Lee and the twins as usual, and all three of them gave me shocked looks.

"Alexa, what are you doing out of bed?" asked George, his tone implying I was definitely crazy.

"Umm... eating breakfast? I'm usually awake right now, why are you so surprised?"

"Because our first period is History of Magic!" said Fred. "Why on earth would you wake up instead of sleeping right through it?"

I laughed. "Oh believe me, I was tempted. I have a lot going on this year though, so I need to take free periods and put them to good use whenever I can."

"So what are you doing with this period then?" asked Lee, munching on a piece of toast.

"I'm not sure yet... I don't have that much homework right now, since it's only the third day of school. And muggle school doesn't start until next week..."

"I'm sure you'll find something," Angelina teased. I just shrugged and poured milk into my cereal. I mean, she wasn't wrong.

I ended up practicing with the new Mystic Arts stuff Strange taught me over the summer. Once school really got going, I'd probably just do what I did last year and use Binns' class period for homework, but until then I might as well practice a different kind of magic.

The hour passed quickly, and I met back up with my friends to walk to Hagrid's hut for Care of Magical Creatures. DADA came next, and Moody's lesson revolved around curses again, which only reinforced my desire to get to the point where I could shake off the Imperius Curse like it was nothing.

After DADA we all headed to lunch, and after all that physical training and concentration, I was starving. I barely had time to grab the components of a sandwich, however, before I was interrupted by a friend I hadn't had much time to talk to yet.